Rocker overcomes illness, proves third time charm in WWK

Maybe it was one of those miracles you hear about — a twist of fate, or destiny taking its course.

Maybe it was the lights, or the roar of the crowd. You could picture the scene: a fed-up rocker taking her destiny into her own hands.

Then again, maybe it was just all of that tea and honey finally kicking in.

Whatever it was, Sarah Steele was glad for it.

This past Friday night (Aug. 16), Steele took home the top monthly prize in round three of the Community Enhancement Group's Wide World of Karaoke Cagematch, held this go-around at Bud's Place in Moberly. The Moberly freelance cake decorator and mother outsang five other competitors (including two fellow returnees to the WWK stage and three newcomers) to earn a spot in the Nov. 1 Cagematch Finale, which will be held at Vertigo Nightclub.

Prior to this past Friday night, Steele was also a contestant in the June and July rounds of WWK, known for her unique twists on well-known songs, and for her hard rock spirit and growl. In June, she was beat out at Vertigo Nightclub by Hannibal warehouse worker Raymond Finnell, who opened the show Friday night, reprising his version of Prince's "Purple Rain." At Lucky's Last Resort in July, Paris waitress and banker Taylor Ross took home the monthly crown. She was not present for Friday night's festivities.

Disappointed by the prior two losses, Steele almost didn't participate in round three, despite her nomination and collecting fanbase. She feared her brand of music didn't translate enough to the local crowd to make much of a difference.

Once she did agree to give it one more try, though, Steele found herself pitted yet again against round two's runner up, 19-year-old country belter Maddison Sharp, and crowd favorite Cookie Tanner Lawrence, only adding to the difficulty of what would seemingly become a three-man race between the return trio – announced to be the final three on Friday night.

"I'll never change who I am to make others happy," she told the MMI prior to the competition. "I may bend, but I'll never break, and will always be true to myself."

Then, just minutes before the third round began, Steele's husband, Adam "Hero" Steele, informed the MMI that Sarah had lost her voice earlier in the week, and that she was still fighting to regain it, sipping on tea and honey before taking the stage.

"She's just going to try her best and have fun with it," he said.

And maybe that was it: dropping the pressure and having fun. Because Steele's growl was as jarring as ever, but her performances seemingly captured the crowd this time more than before, one after the other, including her kick-off tune, "Whole Lotta Love," by Led Zeppelin (which had the audience on its feet by the end), and her finale number, Radiohead's haunting "Creep." In between, Steele struggled a bit on pushing her growl into unnecessary places in The Animals' "House of the Rising Sun," but redeemed herself with a smooth cover of Sarah McLachlan's "Angel." The later was supposed to be sung acappella, but the karaoke music started in, and Steele just ran with it.

Again, the WWK lineup led to a nice contrast in styles, as Steele was sandwiched between Sharp and Lawrence (both country singers), singing in the four spot. Newcomers Cody Cable and Melissa Winn kicked off each segment, and newcomer Jackie Blackford performed in the final slot.

Here's how the rest of the contestants stacked up Friday night:

Information technology professional and father to three sons Cable strutted to the microphone in the kickoff spot with shades on his eyes. He rocked out to George Thorogood and the Destroyers' "Bad to the Bone," even bringing a fake, blow-up guitar into his routine, and struttering the "b-b-b-b-b-bads" to a T. His performances after that tended to fall a little flat, though, as his pitch mapped its way across the grid on sleepy renditions of "Lean on Me" and "Seven Spanish Angels." Cable seemed, like Steele, to be at his best when having fun with his songs, including Charlie Daniels' "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," despite his penchant for screaming instead of singing.

For her comfort song, Winn, a waitress at Vertigo, selected Little Big Town's "Pontoon" — easily her best of the evening. Like Cable before her, though, Winn struggled mightily with pitch and the debate between shouting and singing on (and including "Pontoon") crowd-favorite Meredith Brooks hit "Bitch" and (sticking with the female alt/blues-rock motif for the remainder of the evening) Melissa Etheridge's "I'm the Only One" and a pair of Alanis Morisette numbers — "Head Over Feet" and "Hand In My Pocket." A bit out of her element, Winn did little moving from the mic stand, which lost her valuable stage presence points with the judges.

Dollar General worker Sharp, the competition's youngest participant at 19 years old, came in as the odds-on favorite Friday, and — known for her difficult country song choices — decided to go a little different route and show her versatility in round three. Sharp picked right in her first round — "Oh Darlin," by The Beatles. A last-minute switch prior to the competition also gave her Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" in the fourth round — a song which she made her own with different runs and melody changes that, while off-tune, were on-tune in a somewhat harmonized parallel. Sharp was able to capture originality in the lyrics, while always wandering back to the original tune just in time to remind the audience of the classic that they knew and loved. She also finished Friday night off with a bang, reprising LeAnn Rimes' yodel "Blue," the song that put her on the map in round two.

These strong song choices are important to note, however, because, for some reason, Sharp included on her pre-submitted list several songs she'd never sung before. Two of those made it onto Friday night's setlist, and it showed. The normally-pitch-perfect singer struggled early on in the high bits of the chorus to 4 Non Blondes' "What's Up?," and while usually strong on her Adele covers, she also hit snags on the British singer's timing in the 21 hit "Rumor Has It." A bit more practice on both of these numbers might have netted the young singer the edge that she needed during a tough night on Friday.

Following up after Steele, Lawrence (the night's oldest participant — a mother of three, and grandmother of eight) had a very strong night, and soon became a crowd favorite, warbling through country and classic rock covers in her every-woman twangy style. She started things off with "Break Down Here," a song also from round two, that Lawrence told the MMI was originally something of an inside joke with her brother, which is why she always sings it. The emotion behind her voice showed Lawrence's practice with the number, despite slight slips out of pitch that plagued her throughout the night. Also brought back from round two was Sylvia's "Nobody," and by that point (round three of the night), Lawrence was comfortable and using the whole locale as her stage. Lawrence had no problem interacting with the crowd, judges, DJ, and emcee on Friday night, flirting on "When Will I Be Loved," and getting reactions from the aforementioned on Bob Seger's rock staple "Old Time Rock and Roll." Her final song, Sugarland's "Stay," noted the problem with Lawrence's performances Friday night, and a rut that she seems to fall into. Her songs tend to fall in a very simple range, asking for little to no stretching of limits. They're safe, which the audience responded well to.

Closing out each round, Blackford was somewhat of a dark horse all night, and may be in the future. The self-described "a back wood country party girl" was at Bud's Friday night to party, and party she did. Blackford has great power behind her voice, with the possibility of a little twang, displayed during covers of Reba McEntire's "Why Haven't I Heard From You," Sugarland's "All I Want To Do," and a cover of "Sin Wagon." She interacted well enough with the crowd, and showed a little rocker on occasion. Blackfords obstacle between competitorship and contendership, however, depends upon her want to find her own personal voice. Looking back, her Reba cover sounded like someone trying to impersonate Reba; her Sugarland cover, like someone seeking to be Jennifer Nettles (the band's lead singer). Even her "Zombie" cover consisted of her phrasing lyrics like The Cranberries' Dolores O'Riordan. If Blackford seeks out artistship on these songs, she has a voice and likability built for the finals. On Friday night, though, her attempts to be other singers, despite her great stage presence and sense of fun, likely landed her behind Steele, Sharp, and Lawrence.

Following judges debate and a count of the moneys raised for each singer, it was announced that it was, in fact, one of those three who would be taking the third finals spot.

Upon Steele being announced as the winner, she cupped her face in her hands, and, it appeared, a weight sauntered off of her back and into the shadows of the bar.

She hoarsely announced that the prize money for the night would be used to pay for drinks for the judges and DJ, and for everyone who came out and supported her into the finals. The group shared drinks at Bud's for a short time, them moved to Lucky's (the site of next month's fourth round) for additional karaoke fun, then from there, to Vertigo (which will host the November finale — a finale that she will now be a part of).

In a chance encounter with she and Hero at the local Walmart on Sunday afternoon (Aug. 18), Sarah Steele was still struggling to let loose words as the couple talked excitedly about the fun surprises she has in store for upcoming weeks, and for that November date — one that she almost didn't try out for that third time.

Maybe it was a miracle.

Maybe.

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